I spent a lot of time earlier this morning writing some stuff but then I read it and realized it was really long and dumb, so I ditched it (not that what’s coming next isn’t dumb – just not quite as long). It did lead me to look up the difference between a nautical mile and a regular mile, though, and I’ve been meaning to do that for years now (something I really should have already known, but I guess that one slipped through the cracks). I still haven’t found which came first (though I suspect it was regular miles, or nautical miles would be called miles and the other kind would be called “land miles” or something.

In case you’re curious, a nautical mile is the distance you’d travel if you went one minute of one degree around the Earth at the equator (which is about 1.15 miles). Why it was necessary to come up with this measure (and then call it a “mile”) I have no idea. Seems like they should have just stuck with what a regular mile was and be done with it.

Of course the English had to go and fuck with the mile to make it a messy measurement, too. The Romans kept it simple at 5,000 feet (though they apparently had slightly smaller feet back then). But then the English decided that a mile should be eight furlongs (a furlong being a rather imprecise measure of how far a horse could pull a plow before having to take a break – actually, I think they just turned around and went the other way at that point).

Somebody eventually nailed that down to being 40 rods. Ah, rods. Well, a rod is 16 ½ feet. Why 16.5 and not 16 or 17 (or maybe even 20), you ask? Because a rod is equal to 11 cubits (not 10, not 12, but 11). I mean, duh, right? It’s also the same length as a perch and a pole (whether on purpose or by happenstance, I’m not sure). And a chain is four rods. But I digress.

So, anyway, 16.5 x 40 x 8 = 5,280. Quite obvious, really.

So I guess I’m ready for Jeopardy now.